Senior Interior Design student, Jada Higgins, has achieved a remarkable milestone by winning the IIDA Excellence Award at the Texas-Oklahoma Chapter’s annual awards ceremony held on Friday, November 7th in Austin, Texas.
The IIDA Design Excellence Awards are hosted annually by various chapters to celebrate the best projects and designs in the interior design industry.
Higgins, who is majoring in Interior Design with a minor in Architecture, received the honor for a workplace design project originally created during her junior spring semester. The competition, which typically attracts submissions from professional firms worldwide, recognized her innovative approach to reimagining architectural office environments.
Section drawings from Higgins’ workplace design project.
The award-winning project centers on a concept called “brutal artistry”, drawing inspiration from brutalist architecture while incorporating multiple artistic disciplines.
“I really wanted to bring in the ideas of brutalism more so than the materiality,” Higgins explained. “I wanted it to be open, honest, and transparent, but I also wanted it to be artistic and inspire the people working in the firm, because that’s a place that I would want to work in in the future.”
Rendering of the workplace café space.
According to Higgin's impact statement: “Designed through the lens of a student actively envisioning the future of their profession, this workplace challenges conventional design firm environments by blending research, empathy, and bold conceptual storytelling. It reimagines what an architectural office can feel like—where creativity is sparked by transparency in design and tactile artistic expressions from past and present disciplines. This design becomes more than a place to work; it’s a prototype for how studios can prevent burnout, nurture cross-generational collaboration, and honor the identities of everyone who walks through the door.”
The project’s reception and lobby area.
At the ceremony, Stacy Murphy, president of IIDA Texas-Oklahoma Chapter, presented the award. Higgins was the only student honoree at the event, standing alongside professional firms being recognized for her work.
“It was wonderful to meet the design community that I am potentially going to be in next year,” she shared. “It also strengthened my passion for IIDA because I got to experience how it pushes and supports not only design professionals, but students as well.”
This win marks a significant achievement for a student still completing their degree, demonstrating that bold ideas and thoughtful design can earn recognition at the highest level of the profession.
The Gibbs Design in Action Awards (GDAA) program, led by Dr. Wanda Liebermann, has announced its 2026–2027 funded student projects. The initiative supports design and research work that addresses social, cultural, and economic issues in the built environment through collaboration with faculty and community partners.
The OU Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) 2024 collaboration with the Historic Threatt Filling Station has been recognized in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's newly released Byways Report: The Scenic Route to Rural Prosperity – a story-driven publication exploring how road trip culture and place-based tourism can fuel economic growth in rural communities.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Camille Germany, Chief of Staff, has been named the 2026 recipient of the university-wide Jennifer L. Wise Good Stewardship Award.
